Team Info and Contacts - Templars

[sooooo]

We should probably send something to Templars. I would be fine saying m_h's post, that a map isn't necessary but that we reserve the right to secure a land bridge to Cape Town.

Also - another thought. It looks possible that we could see Banana lands from Templars' lands. Perhaps we could ask them if they know of the bananas and if so if they could do us the favour of letting one of our units through their lands to make contact. It could be a boat or a land unit. We could just make the request, and tell them to let them know if there's a favour we could do in return.

[sooooo]

Bump - any thoughts on my idea to ask Templars about banana?

[sunrise089]

Couldn't hurt to ask.

[Sullla]

Let's ask them for a straight NAP for the next ~25 turns too. (Until T130 or something like that.) If they accept it, great! No two vs. one against us. If they shoot us down, well, that would give us more evidence of an Imperio alliance.

Also, let's propose some kind of a trade with them. Aesthetics + Literature for Metal Casting, something along those lines? It doesn't hurt to ask. The worst that can happen is that they say no.

[Swiss Pauli]

I think we need to give a comprehensive answer to Templars. We've been sitting on this too long as we don't want to find consensus on this topic. We need to cover, in order of priority:

- Border agreement
- NAP
- Trades
- Contact with Banana (can we find out anything from trade screens?)

I don't have time to work on this today, but I hope I can find a reasoned proposal here for me to send out tomorrow morning.

[mostly-harmless]

Dear ...,
we would like to come back to you regarding your border proposal and also raise some other points.

First of all we feel that at the current stage a detailed map is superfluous. Natural settling patterns from both civs have established most of our borders already. There are only two regions left that would be considered worth negotiating over in our eyes.
There is the region NW of Jericho, where we reserve our right to strengthen our presence to ensure a stable landbridge to our holdings near the Imperio border in the North.
And the region South / SouthWest of Jerusalem. You mentioned in an earlier message that your team has little interest in that jungle pestered area despite its closeness to your capital. Understandably you seem to have rather more interest in the fertile lands to your East. Since we can foresee a lack of proper land to settle for us in the short run we would like to claim that stretch of coast in the future, assuming you agree.
We hopefully will come to an agreement there and are willing to compensate you to some extent.

Furthermore we would like to strengthen our relationship by offering a Non Aggression Pact. To "test the waters" we suggest a NAP up until turn 150. What do you say? Feel free to propose a different period of validity.

We congratulate the Templars on their recent breakthrough on the tech front and successful conclusion of several tech trades. Naturally we are interested to engage in tech trading with your team as well, as stated in our earlier messages. Currently we can offer Aesthetics and a voucher worth the difference in beakers for Metal Casting. We could also throw Literature into the deal.

To conclude this message we would like to raise the topic of foreign contact. No doubt, your scouts must have shown you that the world layout favors PAL diplomatically, allowing them contact to all civs and therefore trading opportunities, whereas most of the other civs have no easy way to get into contact with other teams.
We have recently embarked on a mission to break PALs diplomatic monopoly, but found that team Banana is especially hard to locate. Our understanding is that you have established contact with Team Banana already. We would kindly ask you to share the details of how you managed that with us. Also we would like you to lift the no scouting clause we have in our open border agreement when it comes to ships, as we might plan to embark on a discovery mission eastwards which would take us through your waters.

I hope these suggestion meet your approval and we hear from you soon.

Realms Beyond

Comments?

mh

[sunrise089]

Looks good. Perhaps we can offer to transport a Templar scout unit on our boat as payment for the right of passage.

[mostly-harmless]

How would we do that? Can we ferry a foreign unit on our boat?

mh

[sooooo]

Lol, that offer to settle the jungle near their capital is a little cheeky, but I'm fine with that. Message looks good.

[Sullla]

We're asking for a lot in that message, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. If they accept even half the stuff in that message, we're in good shape. I'd say to go ahead and send it.

[sunrise089]

How would we do that? Can we ferry a foreign unit on our boat?

mh

Can a foreign unit not enter a transport if you're allied? Units can certainly occupy the same tiles, and teammates can definitely do this...

[Zeviz]

Please don't send this message yet.

Are we trying to break potential Templar/Imperio alliance, or are we just talking to stall for time? Even if it's the later, we need to make the message more polite.

EDIT: This message will come across as extremely arrogant, and is likely to sway any uncertain member of Templar team towards a war with us. We are asking to settle right next to their capital! If we had military advantage, we could afford to insult them like this, but in the current climate, we shouldn't send this kind of message.

PS I'll work on another draft this evening. If I have time, I'll make two drafts: one that I like and one that simply covers mh's offer with RP language and diplomatic pleasntries.

[mostly-harmless]

The suggestion to settle in their south is intended to be rejected. But that will spare us any trouble for Bad Ass. They can't reject us on both fronts.

mh

[Swiss Pauli]

Thanks, mh, for putting in the time to come up with that draft. I've looked at it, and come up with a 'gentler' alternative:

Dear ...,
We would like to come back to you regarding your border proposal and also raise some other points.

First of all, we feel that at the current stage a detailed map is superfluous. Natural settling patterns from both of us have established most of our borders already.

There are only two regions left that we need to agree on to ensure a mutually aceptable border agreement: the area around Jericho, and the jungle badlands to the Southwest of Jerusalem.

We welcome that fact that you do not object to us settling a bridging city to the northwest of Jericho.

Concerning the region South-West of Jerusalem: you mentioned in an earlier message that your team has little interest in this jungle festooned area and, understandably, you seem to have rather more interest in the fertile lands to your East. Our team has invested quite heavily in workers, and thus we'd be happy to take on the burden of developing this area. However, given the proximity to your capital, we feel that you should have first claim on this area. Please let us know whether you wish to settle this region*.

Furthermore we would like to strengthen our relationship by offering a Non Aggression Pact. We suggest a NAP up until turn 150. Feel free to propose a different period of validity.

We congratulate the Templars on their recent breakthrough on the tech front and successful conclusion of several tech trades. Naturally we are interested to engage in tech trading with your team as well, as stated in our earlier messages. Currently we can offer Aesthetics & Literature for Metal Casting. Let us know your opinion on this.

To conclude this message we would like to raise the topic of foreign contact. No doubt, your scouts must have shown you that the world layout favors PAL diplomatically, allowing them contact to all civs and therefore trading opportunities, whereas most of the other civs have no easy way to get into contact with other teams.
We have recently embarked on a mission to break PALs diplomatic monopoly, but found that team Banana is especially hard to locate. Our understanding is that you have established contact with Team Banana already. We would also like to meet them. Would you be agreeable to us sending a workboat** through your waters to find Team Banana?

We hope these suggestions meet your approval and we look forward to your reply.

*if we're feeling bold, we could set a time limit on this.
**workboat picked so as to be as 'doveish' as possible.


I'm going to have limited internet access for the rest of today, so someone else will need to send the agreed version out.

[mostly-harmless]

Looks good.
A workboat should be all that is needed, given that most of Banana is located on the coast.

mh